System and method for back office processing of banking transactions using electronic files

ABSTRACT

As banking transactions are processed by a bank teller, all of the relevant information with respect to the transaction (e.g., dollar amount) is captured in an electronic file. Each of the electronic files from the various branches of the bank are forwarded to a central back office processing center where the electronic files are combined into a single Transaction Repository. At the end of the branch day, all of the paper associated with the transactions is forwarded from the branches to the back office processing center. The paper transactions are imaged in the conventional manner and the Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) data is read from the paper. The present invention then automatically correlates the images and MICR data captured from the paper with the complete transaction record contained in the Transaction Repository. Most of the conventional back office processing can now be performed without the need to perform character recognition and without the need for excess human intervention.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention generally relates to systems and methods for backoffice processing of bank transactions and more particularly to a systemand method which electronically captures transaction information at thetime of execution of the transaction and uses this electronicinformation during the back office processing.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Historically, a bank teller's interaction with customers and the bank'sinternal systems have been manually organized on a transaction bytransaction basis with little to no capability of linking theinformation regarding the transaction with the paper(s) which constitutethe transaction.

Some prior art teller systems maintained an electronic journal whichallows the teller to perform limited research and allows the teller toreverse transactions selected from the electronic journal in the casewhere an error was actually discovered. However, this type of electronicjournal is limited in its applicability as it is simply a sequentiallist of transactions performed at the bank. Furthermore, the electronicjournal of the prior art has limited detail regarding transactions andmust be supplemented by a continuous paper tape printed out at eachteller system. Given the limited amount of information gathered at theteller workstation, the prior art methods and systems for back officeprocessing were very labor and machine intensive. The term “back office”is well known to those skilled in the art and relates to the facility inthe back which performs the processing for the bank, e.g. posting oftransactions, clearing of checks, statement generation . . . Each branchof the bank forwards all of the documents (e.g., checks, deposits slips. . . ) to the back office at the end of the day for processing. Backoffice processing for banking transactions includes for example, postingof transactions, statement processing, proof of deposit processing, endof day confirmation, account reconciliation and archiving. Untilrecently, most of the capture of data from the paper representing thetransactions (e.g., checks) was done manually at the back office. Forexample, an operator would physically look at the check and enter thedollar amount written on the check into a record in the bank's databaseused for tracking checks. As larger banks process huge volumes ofchecks, each operator in the back office was responsible for data entryfor thousands of checks per day. The shear volume and repetitiveness ofthis process naturally led to errors in the data processing. Recently,systems have been developed which optically scan the financial documentsdata and use character recognition to capture the data previouslycaptured by human operators (e.g., the amount written on a check). FIG.1 illustrates such a prior art system and method of back officeprocessing. Typically at the end of the day, each branch of the bankforwards all of the paper 10 associated with the day's transactions(e.g., checks, deposit slips . . . ) to a central location.

The first process undertaken at the back office is to capture bothimages of the paper (front and back) and the Magnetic Ink CharacterRecognition (MICR) data contained on the paper. Module 15, CheckProcessing Control System (CPCS) Prime Capture, accomplishes both ofthese functions using conventional image enabled sorters, opticalreaders and MICR readers. The image data of the two sides of each of thepapers 10 is stored in an image archive database 20, while the MICR dataread from the paper is stored in a CPCS database 25. Once the image andMICR data have been captured by the CPCS Prime Capture 15, a CharacterRecognition Engine 30 analyzes the captured images in order to determinethe amount of the transaction. If the Character Recognition Engine 30successfully reads the amount of the transaction, the amount is used toupdate the record for that transaction in the CPCS database 25.Typically the Character Recognition Engine 30 is able to interpret theamount on approximately 60% of the transactions with a 2% error rate.

If the MICRline data on the paper document is read incorrectly, in theMICRline Data Completion module 35, an operator looks at the image ofthe document and manually completes the MICRline data in the transactionrecord for the document. If the Character Recognition Engine 30 fails tocapture the amount of the transaction, in the Amount Key Entry module anoperator manually read the image of the check from the image database 20and inputs the amount into the transaction record contained in the CPCSdatabase. If the character recognition for the amount on a deposit slipdoes not reconcile with the sum of the amount character recognized fromthe checks included on the deposit slip, the transaction balanced in theDeposit Balancing 45 module.

In Deposit Balancing 45, the amount listed on a deposit slip is comparedwith the total of the amounts of the checks associated with the depositslip. If these two totals match, the deposit is considered balanced. Ifthe totals do not match, an operator has to manually review the imagesof the deposit slip and the associated checks in order to determine andcorrect the error. Errors could occur in any number of areas such asincorrect character recognition by the Character Recognition engine orincorrect human input in the Amount Key Entry process 40.

As described above, the conventional back office processing of financialdocuments from the branches of the bank are very labor intensive anderror prone. Even with the above described automation aids, the processis still very labor and machine intensive and still produces errorswhich can only be resolved by human intervention.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In the present invention, as transactions are processed by a bankteller, the teller captures all of the relevant information with respectto the transaction for inclusion in an electronic file, the ElectronicJournal Each record in the Electronic Journal representing a transactionwill contain at least the branch and teller identification, the type oftransaction, any MICR data associated with the paper(s) constituting thetransaction, and the amount of the transaction. In a preferredembodiment of the present invention, the Electronic Journals from all ofthe branches are forwarded periodically throughout the day to a centrallocation associated with the branches. In addition to the creation ofthe Electronic Journal, each branch, at the end of the day, forwards allthe paper associated with the transactions to the back office processingcenter. In conjunction with this end of the day processing, each branchcreates an electronic summary of transactions processed that day at thebranch (end of day sums).

In a preferred embodiment, a single processing center performs all ofthe back office processing for all branches of the bank. Periodicallythroughout the day, this single back office accesses the ElectronicJournals for all of the branches. Alternatively, the back officeprocessing center could poll each of the branches independently toaccess the Electronic Journals.

After the importation of the Electronic Journal into the back office,all of the transaction records from the Electronic Journal are stored ina Transaction Repository memory. In parallel with this storage of thetransaction records, a subset of the information contained in each ofthe transaction records is forwarded the back office module whichperforms the End of Day Confirmation process.

When the paper transactions arrive at the back office from the variousbranches, each of the paper transactions is imaged in the conventionalmanner and the MICR data is read from the paper. The back office can nowautomatically correlate the images and MICR data captured from the paperwith the complete transaction record contained in the TransactionRepository. Since the transaction record already contains all of theinformation relevant to the transaction, the need to perform thecharacter recognition, MICRline data completion and amount key entryperformed in the prior art is eliminated (except in exception cases).

The present invention has numerous advantages over the prior artprocessing methods and systems including: a reduction of labor andequipment; a reduction in errors associated with the characterrecognition process; a reduction in the amount of character recognitionand manual key entry which has to take place; simplification of theteller process due to far fewer sorts of physical paper; enabling of amore constant flow of work from the branches to the back office;extended customer hours for centralized Automated Teller Machines (ATM)and branch processing due to freed capacity at the back office; end ofday proofing by tellers is all but eliminated; easy identification ofmissing papers; enhance the return items process for the bank; enableaccurate assignment of the float for cashed checks; reduction of “on-us”financial control documents (e.g., General ledger tickets, Cash-in,Cash-out); and an improvement of the cash reconciliation process basedupon earlier access to the document images.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For the purposes of illustrating the present invention, there is shownin the drawings a form which is presently preferred, it being understoodhowever, that the invention is not limited to the precise form shown bythe drawing in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates the back office processing of the prior art;

FIG. 2 depicts a typical hardware configuration at a branch location;

FIG. 3 illustrates the three groups of transactions which are generatedat a branch;

FIG. 4 is an overview of the system and the flow of data according tothe present invention;

FIG. 5 illustrates the process conducted by the Import module;

FIG. 6 illustrates the detail of the End of Day Confirmation module andassociated processes;

FIG. 7 illustrates the detail the Work In Progress component;

FIG. 8 depicts an overview of the process of linking the electronictransactions in the Transaction Repository 175 with the data captured bythe CPCS Prime Capture process;

FIG. 9 illustrates the process conducted by the Update component;

FIG. 10 depicts the process by which the Archive Cross Reference Buildercreates an Archive Cross Reference database;

FIG. 11 depicts the process performed by the All Items File Builder; and

FIG. 12 illustrates the deposit balancing procedure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

As described above, part of the present invention involves the tellercapturing information concerning a transaction as the transaction isbeing processed by the teller. FIG. 2 illustrates a typical hardwareconfiguration at a branch which includes a token ring network 50 ofworkstations. One of these networks 50 is established at each branch ofthe bank. Elements 55 represent workstations for use by the tellers inconducting transactions (e.g., at a teller window with a bank customer).Each teller workstation 55 also includes a MICR reader 60 which enablesthe teller to scan the MICR encoding on checks and other instruments.

Server 65 is an application server, while server 70 is a databaseserver. Each of these servers 65, 70 provide common access to all of theapplications and databases used at the branch. Through the network 50,each of the teller workstations 55 have access to the applications anddatabases residing on servers 65, 70. The application server 65 is shownas having a shared laser printer 75 connected thereto. Server 80 is acommunication server which provides the connection between the network50 and the branch host 85. As will be described below, transactionsgenerated from the teller's workstations 55 are transmitted to thebranch host 85 for confirmation processing.

A logical grouping of one or more consecutive transactions performed bya teller is known as a session. A customer session is one or moretransactions performed for a single customer during the course of asingle visit to the teller window. A non-customer session consists ofone or more transactions performed by the teller without a customerbeing physically present at the teller's window.

As a teller initiates a session, a new record is opened in the BranchElectronic Journal which includes the number and date and start time ofthe session. The Branch Electronic Journal is, as implied by its name, afile which electronically records all of the actions (transactionprocessing) performed by the teller at the branch. Each session recordin the Branch Electronic Journal includes the session ID and sessionstart and end times and initial Session Balance (which may be zero),along with the Teller ID of the teller conducting the session and anycustomer ID obtained. Each transaction processed by the teller has aseparate record entry within the session record in the Branch ElectronicJournal.

The transaction entry contains all pertinent details regarding thetransaction including, for example: a transaction sequence number; thetransaction type; account number; and the dollar amount. There areapproximately two hundred and fifty different types of transactionswhich can be processed, but the back office is only concerned withapproximately one hundred and thirty. In one embodiment of the presentinvention, the branches 150 only send the back office 170 transactionsof the pertinent one hundred and thirty types. In an alternativeembodiment, the branches 150 send records to the back office 170 relatedto all of the transactions conducted at the respective branches 150,regardless of type. In this embodiment, the back office 170 culls outonly the types of transactions which require back office processing.

Each transaction is logged in the Branch Electronic Journal as it issent to the branch host system 85 for confirmation. The transactionentries in the Branch Electronic Journal therefore reflect the “stream”order in which the transactions are sent to the branch host 85. Thebranch host response for each transaction is appended to the appropriatetransaction entry as received, along with the time of receipt. TheBranch Electronic Journal may be viewed and sorted selectively by theteller, but may not be edited or altered by any user, but may beselected by the teller for reversal. All teller activity is permanentlyrecorded in the Branch Electronic Journal.

For each transaction which involves a piece of paper with a MICR codeimprinted thereon (e.g., a check), the teller system prompts the tellerto swipe the check(s) on reader 60 to capture the check information. Theteller then individually enters the amount related to the paper (e.g.,the amount of each check). This MICR data is appended to the transactionrecord in the Branch Electronic Journal.

As briefly described above, there are over two hundred and fiftydifferent types of transactions which can be conducted at a branch. Theback office processing is only concerned with approximately one hundredand thirty of these transactions. These one hundred and thirtytransactions are logically and physically separated into three differentgroups. FIG. 3 illustrates the three different groupings, Group 1 (100),Group 2 (105) and Group 3 (110) of transactions generated at the variousbranches of the bank. The physical separation of the groups occurs atthe teller's workstation when the transactions are processed. At thebeginning of the day, or any point throughout the day, the tellergenerates three control tickets 115 which identify the group oftransaction papers 120 which are physically grouped with the controlticket 115. As the teller processes transactions, the physical paper 120associated with the transactions is separated into the one of the threegroups defined by the control tickets 115. Periodically throughout thebusiness day, and at least at the end of the branch day, all of thepaper 115, 120 associated with the transactions processed by the branch,organized by the three groups, is shipped to the back office forprocessing as described below.

Group 1 (100) consists of credits and debits with cash, check or creditoffsets and includes cash only deposits. The Group 1 (100) transactionsare financially complete at the teller's window, and no furtherfinancial processing is required by the bank. The back office 170requires the documentation with respect to these transactions for atleast archival and research purposes. For cash only deposits, the MICRencoded deposit slip is the paper associated with the transaction. Group2 (105) transactions are all deposits except cash only deposits andinclude check only, mixed, split and check deposits less cash. Inprocessing Group 2 transactions, the teller swipes the deposit slip 120in order to acquire the MICR data (e.g., the account and serialnumbers). The teller further enters the cash amount (if any) and thetotal amount of the deposit. For each check in a Group 2 (105) deposit,the teller MICR swipes the check 120 and manually enters the dollaramount of the check. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention,the tellers only swipes and enters the amounts of Group 2 (105) checks120 if the total number of checks involved in the transaction is below athreshold amount (e.g., less than five checks). If there are more checks120 involved in the transaction than the threshold amount, thetraditional back office processing described above is used to processthe transaction at the back office.

Group 3 (10) transactions consist solely of checks 120, either cashed orused for payments (e.g., of a credit card balance) or sales (e.g., oftravelers checks). As with checks 120 in Groups 1 and 2 (100, 105)checks 120 for Group 3 (110) are MICR swiped by the teller and theteller manually enters the dollar amount. As described above, all of theMICR data and the dollar amounts manually entered by the teller areinput into record in the Branch Electronic Journal associated with thetransaction. This is true for all transactions, whether they be Group 1,2 or 3. Group 2 (105) and Group 3 (100) transactions are considered“live” even after they leave the branch 150 since the financialprocessing for the transaction is not yet complete (e.g., clearing ofchecks through the bank upon which the check is drawn).

FIG. 4 illustrates an overview of the system and the flow of dataaccording to the present invention. As previously described, the variousbranches 150 of the bank forward their individual Branch ElectronicJournals to a retail mainframe system 155 common to all of the branches150. The forwarding of data is accomplished, for example, through atelecommunications line. Note that the term retail relates to the branchoperations of the bank. Again, the Branch Electronic Journals containrecords related to over two hundred and fifty different types oftransactions and also contain other branch specific information which isof no interest to the back office. Accordingly, the retail mainframe 155extracts only the information which is of interest to the back office(relating to approximately one hundred and thirty transactions) andgenerates a Transaction Journal file 160 which is for use by the backoffice.

As transaction records are received by the Retail mainframe 155throughout the course of the day, the mainframe 155 builds theTransaction Journal 160. The process of building the Transaction Journal160 is invoked at the start of each business day, and as described belowpasses certain transactions contained in the Transaction Journal 160 tothe back office platform on a continuous basis throughout the day. Aselectronic transactions are received from branches 150 in the BranchElectronic Journals, the transactions are examined to determine if theyare to be written to the Transaction Journal 160. By the end of the day,the Transaction Journal file 160 contains records for all of therelevant transactions performed at all of the branches 150 for therelevant time period (e.g., a day).

The following Transaction types are included in the Transaction Journal160: Financial transactions (e.g., Group 2 (105) Deposit Tickets andassociated checks, and Group 3 (110) Payment, Sale, or Cashed Checksthat have been MICR Swiped by the Teller); Archive Only transactions(e.g., Group 1 (100) transactions); Work In Progress Batch (Groups 1, 2,and 3) transactions; Branch Confirmation transactions; and All ItemsOnly transactions (e.g., non paper transactions). The relevancy of thesedifferent types of record will be discussed below with respect to theback office processing.

The records contained in the Transaction Journal 160 preferably includethe following fields: Financial Entity; Branch Number; Business Date;End Of Day Indicator; Transaction Type Indicators; Transaction Count;Transaction Dollar Amount; Discrepancy Indicator; Confirmation Number;Confirmation Time; Session Number; Teller ID Number; and the MICR linedata captured at the teller station.

As depicted in FIG. 4, an Import module 165 of the present invention islocated at the back office 170. The Import component 165 processestransactions from the Transaction Journal 160 which it reads throughoutthe course of the day. The Import component 165 is invoked at the startof each business day and executes (performs the read operation)periodically throughout the day (e.g., every 15 minutes) in order topick up new transactions. The import module 165 examines eachtransaction that has been imported and invokes the appropriate backoffice 170 components that are required to process the transaction.

Each transaction imported during a given import run is examined todetermine the type of the transaction. If the transaction is a Financialtransaction, as described above, the record for that transaction isstored in the Transaction Repository 175. If the transaction is forarchive purposes only (e.g., Group 1 transactions) the transaction ispassed to an Archive Cross Reference Builder component 180 (see FIG.10). If the transaction reflects a Work In Progress transaction, thetransaction is passed to a Work In Progress component 185. BranchConfirmation transactions are passed to an End Of Day Confirmationcomponent 190. Finally, if the transaction is an All Items Onlytransaction (e.g., a non paper transaction) it is stored in theTransaction Repository 175.

The Import component 165 is invoked at the start of each business dayeither by the System Manager 195, or by another means of job scheduling.Subsequent import runs are invoked automatically (e.g., every 15minutes). The System Manager 195 provides an On-line means of invokingthe daily start-up of the Import process. The System Manager 195 furtherallows the operator to monitor and control the Import process by viewingthe result of each import run. The System manager 195 also allowsmonitoring and control the End of Day Confirmation process between theback office 170 and the Retail mainframe 155, and provides for themanagement of system exception conditions which may occur within theback office 170. Back office processing exception conditions are storedin a system journal (not shown) and can be viewed via a System Manager195 screen. Exception conditions are detected by each component of theback office platform 170 and are recorded in the system journal. TheSystem manager 195 also allows for viewing of Work In Progress Batchesthat have been “cut” by a given teller (as described below). The filesrequired to view this data are created by the Work In Progress component185.

FIG. 5 illustrates the process conducted by the Import module 165. Aspreviously described, the import module 165 is invoked at the beginningof the day and is periodically invoked (e.g., every fifteen minutes) inorder to pick up new transactions. For each record in the TransactionJournal 160, Import 165 tests to see what should be done with the recordin steps 200, 210, 220, 230 and 240. If the answer to any of the testsis NO, the testing of the transaction goes onto the next test. Import165 uses a control file 162 in order to keep track of the status andprogress of the transaction processing and to store control parameters.As previously described, the System Manager 195 is used to invoke andmonitor the import process.

In step 200 it is determined if the transaction is a Group 1, 2 or 3transaction. If the transaction is a Group 1, 2 or 3 type transaction,the transaction is stored in the Transaction Repository 175. In step 210it is determined if the transaction is a branch confirmation transaction(e.g., end of day totals). If the transaction is a branch confirmation,the confirmation is passed onto the End of Day Confirmation module 190.If the transaction is a Work in Progress transaction (step 220) thetransaction is passed onto the Work in Progress module 185 (step 225).If the transaction is an adjustment transaction (step 230) thetransaction is passed onto an Adjustment module (step 235). Adjustmenttransactions are entered by a teller to correct a previously submittedtransaction. The adjustment to the original transaction can be doneeither manually by an operator or automatically by the system. Finally,if the transaction is an All Items Only transaction (step 240) thetransaction is stored in the Transaction Repository 175 (step 245).

The Transaction Repository 160 is one of the key elements of the systemand method of the present invention. As previously described, electronicdata concerning transactions which was previously captured at the backoffice 170 using expensive, time consuming and error prone processes andequipment is now captured by the tellers at the time of the transaction,imported and stored in the Transaction Repository 160. The TransactionRepository 160 provides the primary data storage, indexing, andretrieval services for the present invention. This Repository 160provides for concurrent data storage, indexing, and retrieval by theother modules and processes described herein.

Each transaction resident in the Transaction Repository 160 is indexedat least by the MICR data provided by the teller MICR swiping process.The transactions are preferably further indexed by the Branch, Tellerand Batch (group 1, 2 or 3) in order that the other modules of thesystem can quickly locate and access the transaction data. As previouslydescribed, transactions are passed from Import 165 via an applicationprogram interface (API) to the Transaction Repository 175. Thetransactions stored in the Transaction Repository 175 include: Financialtransactions (Group 2 Deposit Tickets and associated checks and Group 3payment, sales, or cashed checks, that have been MICR Swiped by theTeller); Archive Only transactions (Group 1 transactions); and All ItemsOnly transaction (non paper transactions).

FIG. 6 illustrates in more detail the End of Day Confirmation module 190and associated processes. The primary purpose of the End of DayConfirmation module 190 is to confirm, at end of the branch day, thecompleteness of the data feed from the branches 150 to the back office170 through the Transaction Journal file 160 (see FIG. 4). As depictedin FIG. 6, the End of Day Confirmation module 190 maintains an End ofDay Confirmation File 192. This file 192 contains at least one recordfor each branch 150 of the bank. Each of these branch records containaccumulators which keep track of the financial totals processed by thebranch during the course of the entire day. The accumulators areorganized by the transaction types (e.g., cash only deposits).

As transactions are received by Import 165, the transactions are passedto the End of Day Confirmation module 190. The End of Day Confirmationmodule 190 reads the branch from the transaction record and uses thisinformation to retrieve the branch record from the End of DayConfirmation File 192. The dollar amount related to the transaction isthen aggregated within the branch record with respect to the transactioncode type.

At the end of day in each branch, Confirmation transactions are passedto the End of Day Confirmation component 190 from the Import component165. There are confirmation-transactions for each transaction code typefor each branch. The confirmation process in the End of Day Confirmationcomponent 190 matches transaction code values to ensure that all workhas been successfully received by the back office 170. This isaccomplished by comparing the values in the received Confirmationtransactions with the values accumulated throughout the day in thebranch records contained in the End of Day Confirmation File 192.

If the confirmation process fails for a given branch, this failure isdisplayed on the System Manager 195 screen. This notification providesan early warning to the back office personnel that a potential problemexists in the teller, branch or back office systems.

FIG. 7 illustrates in more detail the Work In Progress component 185 ofthe present invention. A work in progress consists of one or more “live”transactions which have not been completely processed. The primaryfunction of this component 185 is to write Work In Progress transactionsto a Work In Progress data set 187 as the transactions are received bythe back office 170. The purpose of this function is to enable thetracking of these transactions as they proceed through the variousprocessing steps and stations at the back office 170. The Work InProgress data set 187 is a repository where units (batches) of Work inProgress are recorded. Although not shown in FIG. 7, the Work InProgress data set 187 is accessible by the System Manager 195 formonitoring and tracking of Work In Progress transactions.

As illustrated in FIG. 7, Work In Progress transactions are fed to theWork In Progress component 185 by both the Import component 165 and theEnd of Day Confirmation module 190. Additionally, sensors can be placedthroughout the back office 170 and the branches 150 (see FIG. 4) inorder for these components to report the location and progress of a WorkIn Progress. These sensors are generically represented in FIG. 7 asOther Modules 197. For example, as the physical paper arrives at thereceiving office of the back office 170 from a branch 150, an operatorscans the control card (115, FIG. 3) on top of the batch. This sensorfeeds the control information for the batch to the Work In Progressmodule 185 for inclusion in the Work In Progress database 187.Similarly, as the batch is fed into the sorter (not shown), a sensor inthe sorter reads the control card 155 and informs the Work In Progressmodule 185 which updates the record for the batch in the Work InProgress database 187. By this means, the system is able to track thelocation and progress of the transactions as they pass through the backoffice 170.

The power of the present invention is readily apparent once all of thepaper 10 representing all of the transactions processed throughout theday at the branches 150 arrives at the back office 170 from the branches150. FIG. 8 depicts an overview of the process of linking the electronicrepresentations of the transactions contained in the TransactionRepository 175 with the data in the Image Archive 20 and the CPCSdatabase 25 generated by the CPCS Prime Capture process 15.

As previously described with respect to the prior art system of FIG. 1,the first process undertaken at the back office 170 of the presentinvention is to capture both images of the paper 10 (front and back) andthe MICR data contained on the paper 10. As with the prior art, CPCSPrime Capture 15 accomplishes both of these functions using conventionalimage enabled sorters, optical readers and MICR readers The image dataof the two sides of each of the papers 10 is stored in an image archivedatabase 20, while the MICR data read from the paper is stored in a CPCSdatabase 25. This is where the similarity to the prior art systems andmethods ends. As previously described, the prior art system of FIG. 1employed: a Character Recognition Engine 30 to analyze the capturedimages in order to determine the amount of the transaction; a MICRlineData Completion module to [NOTE to inventors, what does (did) thismodule do?]; and if either of the automated processes failed to capturethe amount of the transaction, an operator would have had to manuallyread the image of the check from the image database 20 and input theamount into the transaction record contained in the CPCS database(module 40).

In direct contrast to the systems and method of the prior art, thepresent invention uses an automated Update component 200 which is usedto link the data electronically captured by the teller and contained inthe Transaction Repository 175 with the data contained in both the ImageArchive 20 and the CPCS database 25. In general, the Update component200 extracts the relevant information (e.g., dollar amount or accountnumber) related to a transaction from the Transaction Repository 175 andinserts this information into the record for paper 10 associated withthe transaction contained in the CPCS database 25. The CPCS database 25already has a pointer to the image of the paper 10 in the Image Archive20. In this manner, all of the relevant information regardingtransactions is gathered and is easily accessible without the expensiveand time consuming processes and equipment of the prior art.

As described above, the primary function of the Update component 200 isto obtain transaction specific data from the Transaction Repository 175following the completion of a CPCS Prime Pass Capture 15 run. Updatemodule 200 updates the CPCS database 25 with dollar amounts for checks,account numbers for Counter Deposit Tickets, and Cash In/Out Amount formixed deposits. As previously described, the data for the transactioncontained in the Transaction Repository 175 is generated at the tellerworkstation at the branch 150. In contrast, in the prior art, this typeof data was either manually entered by a clerk at the back office 170 orwas attempted to be captured by the imaging system. As described above,both of the prior art systems were error prone and very labor intensive.As the teller is able to swipe the documents and enter the financialdata at a more deliberate pace, the likelihood that errors would occurduring the use of the present invention are. Furthermore, as the telleris directly responsible for the integrity of each financial transactionhe or she processes the teller presumptively double checks eachtransaction. As this verification by the teller occurs “offline” withrespect to the back office processing, the speed of the back officeprocessing is greatly enhanced. Finally, the teller system includes anautomatic proofing function which electronically catches errors (e.g. indeposit slip or check amount entry) by the teller before they enter thesystem.

Update component 200 is invoked after the completion of a CPCS PrimePass Capture 15 on branch work (i.e., physical paper 10 of Group Types1, 2 and 3). The paper 10 associated with Group 2 & 3 type transactionsis captured throughout the course of the evening and paper related toGroup 1 type transactions are captured at end of day. The output of theCPCS Prime Pass Capture 15 is a string which contains records for all ofthe paper associated with the transactions processed during the run. Thestring is stored in the CPCS database 25.

FIG. 9 illustrates the process conducted by the Update component 200after completion of the CPCS Prime Pass Capture 15. The first operationis that a Read and Update module 210 of the Update component 200 opensthe string stored in the CPCS database 25 in order to read thetransactions. The transactions are then read one by one. When a Group 1,2 or 3 type transaction is encountered on the string, the Read andUpdate module 210 reads from the string the MICR data for thetransaction. After the Read and Update module 210 has read the MICR datafor the transaction from the string in the CPCS database 25, a Getmodule 205 of the Update component 200 accesses the TransactionRepository 175 using the MICR data as an index to search the TransactionRepository 175. As depicted in FIG. 9, the Transaction Repository 175 iscomprised of an Index 176 and a Detail database 177. As previouslydescribed, the transactions stored in the Transaction Repository 175 areindexed in several ways in order to ease the access of the detailedtransaction data. These various indexes are stored in the Index database176 while the complete record for the transaction is stored in theDetail database 177. The MICR data is used as an index key to search theIndex database 176 which is then used to retrieve the transactionspecific data (e.g., dollar amount for a check, account number for acounter deposit ticket, or Cash In/Out amount for a mixed deposit) fromthe Detail database 177.

The Transaction Repository 175 returns the retrieved transaction data tothe Get module 205 which passes the data onto the Read and Update module210. The Read and Update module 210 then updates the transaction datacontained in the string in the CPCS dataset 25 with the retrieved data(e.g., the check dollar amount). For Counter Deposit Tickets, the dollaramount and account number are inserted into the CPCS string. Fordeposits with Cash In/Out, a Cash In/Out transaction will be insertedinto the CPCS string.

After the Update component 200 has read all of the transactions from thestring, retrieved all of the data from the Transaction Repository 175and updated the string, the Update component 200 passes to the Work InProgress component 185 (FIG. 7) an electronic list of all work inprogress batch numbers present on the string in order to track theprogress of the transactions.

Group 1 transactions, credits and debits with cash, check or creditoffsets and cash only deposits require special processing in order totrack these transactions. As previously described, Group 1 transactionsare no longer considered “live” as the financial aspect of thetransactions has been completed at the teller work station. As such,Group 1 transactions are treated differently than Group 2 or 3transactions which require financial processing. FIG. 10 illustrates theprocess by which the Archive Cross Reference Builder 180 creates anArchive Cross Reference database 215. The primary function of theArchive Cross Reference Builder 180 is to create the electronic ArchiveCross Reference file 215 for transactions in Group 1, Archive Only inorder to create the connection between the representation of the Group 1financial transactions represented by the records in the TransactionsRepository 175 and the records for the transactions contained in theCPCS dataset 25. As an alternative to the Archive Cross ReferenceBuilder 180, the Update module 200 could perform this cross referencefunction. It is preferred though, to have the separate Archive CrossReference Builder 180 perform the cross referencing as this function canbe performed out the critical path of the Update module 200 which isalso processing the “live” financial transactions of Groups 2 and 3.

The physical documents associated with on-line transactions (Group 1)created at the teller workstation 55 (FIG. 2) are delivered to the backoffice 170 where the MICR and image data is captured by the CPCS PrimePass Capture component 15 as described above with respect to FIG. 8. Thestring containing the transactions resulting from the CPCS Prime PassCapture 15 run is stored in the CPCS database 25. Similar to the processdescribed above with respect to the Update component (FIG. 9) theArchive Cross Reference Builder 180 uses the MICR data as an index tosearch the Transaction Repository 175. The MICR data is used as an indexkey to search the Index database 176 which is then used to retrieve thetransaction specific data (e.g., dollar amount) from the Detail database177. With the electronic transaction information from the TransactionRepository 175 and the captured transaction information from the CPCSdatabase 25, the Archive Cross Reference Builder 180 generates a crossreference record which is written to the Archive Cross Reference file215. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention the crossreference comprises pointers to the appropriate records in the CPCSdatabase and the Transaction Repository. The Archive Cross Referencefile 215 is used by the conventional back office processes such asresearch and adjustment programs.

Not all of the transactions conducted by the teller generate paperdocumentation which is sent to the back office 170. Accordingly, thepresent invention provides an All Items File Builder 250 as depicted inFIG. 11 in order to record these paperless transactions. As previouslydescribed, all of the transactions are electronically captured at theteller workstation 55 (FIG. 2) and are populated into the TransactionRepository 175. The ultimate function of the All Items File Builder 250is to pass the electronic data regarding paperless transactions to theconventional back office processes (e.g., research and adjustmentplatforms).

The All Items File Builder 250 requests from the Transaction Repository175 all of the transactions which are electronic, no paper transactions.The Transaction Repository is able to identify and extract these recordsand pass them back to the All Items File Builder 250. Each of theserecords is written to a No Paper database 255. Each of the records isread from the No Paper database 255 by another module (not shown) andthe records are then used to create new records in the CPCS database 25which had previously only contained records for transactions captured bythe CPCS Prime Pass Capture 15 (FIG. 8). The CPCS database 25 now has acomplete set of data relating to all of the transaction processed at thebranches throughout the day.

FIG. 12 illustrates the Deposit balancing function as implemented in thepresent invention. The process of Deposit balancing in the presentinvention is essentially the same as described above with respect to theprior art of FIG. 1. One big difference is that because of the dataentry by the teller and inclusion of this data in the CPCS dataset (byUpdate module 200, FIG. 9) a drastically reduced number of deposittransactions will not be automatically balanced by the system.Accordingly, fewer deposit transactions will require manual balancing byan operator. A further improvement of the present invention is the caseof missing documents, the teller data contained in the TransactionRepository 175 can be used to supplement the data scanned from thephysical documents (contained in CPCS database 25, FIG. 8).

In step 500 in FIG. 12, a record or a group of records comprising atransaction is read from the CPCS database 25 (FIG. 8). Use of the datafrom the CPCS database 25 is preferred to balancing from the teller datafound in the Transaction Repository 175 (FIG. 4) as this serves as adouble check of the balancing performed by the teller at the teller'sworkstation. In step 510 it is tested whether or not the transaction isa Group 2 or 3 transaction. If the transaction is not a Group 2 or 3type (i.e., it is a Group 1 transaction), the next transaction is read(step 500) from the Transaction Repository 175. Group 1 transactions donot require balancing as the financial aspect of the Group 1transactions is complete at the teller's workstation.

If the transaction is either a Group 2 or 3 type transaction, thedeposit slip (for Group 2) or batch ticket (for Group 3) record is readfor the transaction (step 520). The amount of the transaction is readfrom the deposit slip or batch ticket record and written to a firsttemporary buffer (step 530). In step 540 the records for each of thedocuments (e.g., checks) which are associated with the deposit slip orbatch ticket for the transaction are read. The dollar amounts of all ofthe documents in the transaction are summed in step 500 and the total iswritten to a second temporary buffer. In step 560, the first and secondbuffers are compared to verify that the transaction is in balance. Ifthe two buffers are equal, the transaction is balanced (step 570) andthe process (steps 500-570) is repeated for the next transaction.

If the two buffers are not equal, the deposit is out of balance andrequires human intervention. In step 580 the records for the transactionfrom the Transaction Repository 175 and the CPCS database 25, and theimages of the documents representing the transaction (from the imagedatabase 20, FIG. 8) are displayed to an operator. Given all of thisinformation on a single workstation/display screen, the operator is thenable to determine why the deposit did not balance.

If a record for a document is missing from the CPCS database 25 and fromthe image database 20, but a record exists in the TransactionRepository, the operator performing the balancing has the option ofaccepting the dollar amount which appears from the TransactionRepository 175 and approving the balancing. In this case, the documentcould be missing, for example, if the document was misfiled with adifferent batch or was not read properly by the CPCS prime passoperation (e.g., was physically behind a different document).Alternatively, the system itself may balance an out of balancetransaction under certain conditions (e.g., one check is missing, andthe record for that check in the Transaction Repository 175 indicatesthe amount of the check is below a threshold amount (e.g., $100)).

While the operator is investigating out of balance transactions, theprocess steps 500-570 run in parallel on the remaining of unprocessedtransactions in the transaction repository. Out of balance transactionsmay be buffered for processing by the operator.

As previously described, the system and method of the present inventionprovides significant advantages over the prior art processing methodsand systems. Less manual labor and less expensive equipment is requiredto implement and run the system of the present invention. The presentinvention experiences a significant reduction in errors associated withboth the character recognition process and the manual processes of theprior art. Although the teller is electronically capturing more datathan in the past, the present invention simplifies the teller processdue to far fewer sorts of the physical paper associated with thetransactions. The system and method of the present invention enables amore constant flow of work from the branches to the back office which inpart results in extended customer hours for centralized Automated TellerMachines (ATM) and branch processing due to freed capacity at the backoffice. The present invention all but eliminates the end of day proofingpreviously performed by tellers is all but eliminated.

The system of the present invention provides for easy identification ofmissing papers and enhances the return items process for the bank. Usingthe present invention, accurate assignment of the float for cashedchecks is enabled.

The system reduces the number of “on-us” financial control documents(e.g., General ledger tickets, Cash-in, Cash-out). The system furtherimproves the cash reconciliation process based upon earlier access tothe document images.

Although the present invention has been described in relation toparticular embodiments thereof, many other variations and other useswill be apparent to those skilled in the art. It is preferred,therefore, that the present invention be limited not by the specificdisclosure herein, but only by the gist and scope of the disclosure.

1.-48. (canceled)
 49. A method of processing banking transactionscomprising the steps of: (a) electronically capturing first transactiondata reflecting banking transactions conducted at a point of contact;(b) storing the first transaction data in a transaction file; (c)reading the first transaction data from the transaction file; (d)forwarding data associated with the banking transactions conducted atthe point of contact to a back office location; (e) generating secondtransaction data reflecting information associated with the data; (f)linking the first and second transaction data with respect to a commonfinancial transaction; and (g) processing the first and secondtransaction data to complete the banking transactions.
 50. The methodaccording to claim 49, wherein the point of contact comprises a bankbranch location, the method further comprising the step of transmittingthe transaction file to a different location.
 51. The method accordingto claim 49, wherein there are plurality of bank branch locations, themethod further comprising the step of: conducting steps (a) and (b) ateach of the bank branch locations, wherein there is a separatetransaction file for each bank branch location.
 52. The method accordingto claim 51, further comprising the step of consolidating thetransaction data from the transaction files from each of the bank branchlocations into a consolidated transaction file, wherein the reading ofstep (c) is performed on the consolidated transaction file.
 53. Themethod according to claim 52, wherein the consolidation step occursseveral limes during a business day.
 54. The method according to claim53, further comprising the step of electronically transmitting thetransaction files from each of the bank branch locations to a centrallocation, wherein the step of consolidation occurs at the centrallocation.
 55. The method according to claim 54 wherein steps (c) and (g)occur at the central location.
 56. The method according to claim 54further comprising the step of electronically transmitting theconsolidated file from the central location to a different location,wherein steps (c) and (g) occur at the different location.
 57. Themethod according to claim 56 wherein the central location is a retailbank central location and wherein the different location is a backoffice processing location.
 58. The method according to claim 52,wherein the consolidating step further comprises the step ofconsolidating less than all of the transaction data from each of thetransaction files into the consolidated file.
 59. The method accordingto claim 49 wherein the transaction data in the transaction filereflects less than all of the banking transactions conducted at thepoint of contact.
 60. The method as set forth in claim 49, furthercomprising the step of: updating the second transaction data with atleast a portion of the first transaction data.
 61. The method as setforth in claim 60 wherein the portion of the first transaction data is adollar amount associated with the financial transaction.
 62. The methodas set forth in claim 49 wherein the step of generating the secondtransaction data comprises the step of imaging at least one documentcontaining the data.
 63. The method as set forth in claim 49, whereinthe step of generating the second transaction data comprises the step ofreading Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) data.
 64. The methodas set forth in claim 49, further comprising the step of inserting atype identifier into the first transaction data, the type identifierindicating a type of transaction contained in the first transactiondata.
 65. The method as set forth in claim 49, further comprising thestep of maintaining, at a back office location, a back office aggregatedollar value of the financial transactions contained in the firsttransaction data.
 66. The method as set forth in claim 65, furthercomprising the steps of: generating an aggregate dollar value offinancial transactions conducted at the point of contact; forwarding theaggregate dollar value to the back office location; and comparing theaggregate dollar value with the back office aggregate dollar value. 67.The method as set forth in claim 49, wherein the step of electronicallycapturing the first transaction data further comprises the step ofreading Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) data associated withthe data.
 68. The method as set forth in claim 49, wherein the step ofelectronically capturing the first transaction data further comprisesthe step of entering the amount of a transaction into an electronicfile.
 69. The method as set forth in claim 49, wherein there are aplurality of points of contact, the step of electronically capturing thefirst transaction data further comprises the step of capturing the firsttransaction data with respect to transactions conducted by at pluralityof points of contact.
 70. The method as set forth in claim 49, whereinthe processing of step (d) includes account reconciliation processing.71. The method as set forth in claim 49, wherein the processing of step(g) includes posting of the financial transactions.
 72. The method asset forth in claim 49, wherein the processing of step (g) includes proofof deposit processing.
 73. A method for processing banking transactionscomprising the steps of: electronically capturing first transaction datareflecting transactions processed at a point of contact; storing thefirst transaction data in an electronic transaction file; transmittingthe electronic transaction file to a back office processing location;forwarding data associated with the transactions conducted at the pointof contact to the back office; reading the first transaction data fromthe electronic transaction file; generating second transaction datareflecting information associated with the data; linking the first andsecond transaction data with respect to a common transaction; andperforming financial processing using the first and second transactiondata.
 74. The method as set forth in claim 73, further comprising thestep of: updating the second transaction data with at least a portion ofthe first transaction data.
 75. The method as set forth in claim 74,wherein the portion of the first transaction data is a dollar amountassociated with the transaction.
 76. The method as set forth in claim73, wherein the step of generating the second transaction data comprisesthe step of imaging at least one document containing the data.
 77. Themethod as set forth in claim 73, wherein the step of generating thesecond transaction data comprises the step of reading Magnetic InkCharacter Recognition data associated with the data.
 78. The method asset forth in claim 73, further comprising the step of inserting a typeidentifier into the first transaction data, the type identifierindicating a type of transaction contained in the first transactiondata.
 79. The method as set forth in claim 73, further comprising thestep of maintaining, at the back office, a back office aggregate dollarvalue of financial transactions contained in the transaction data. 80.The method as set forth in claim 79, further comprising the steps of:generating an aggregate dollar value of financial transactions conductedat the point of contact; forwarding the aggregate dollar value to theback office; and comparing the aggregate dollar value with the backoffice aggregate dollar value.
 81. The method as set forth in claim 73,wherein the step of electronically capturing the first transaction datafurther comprises the step of reading Magnetic Ink Character Recognitiondata associated with the data.
 82. The method as set forth in claim 73,wherein the step of electronically capturing the first transaction datafurther comprises the step of entering the amount of a transaction intoan electronic file.
 83. The method as set forth in claim 73, whereinthere are a plurality of points of contact, the step of electronicallycapturing the first transaction data further comprises the step ofcapturing the first transaction data with respect to transactionsconducted at the plurality of points of contact.
 84. A system forprocessing banking transactions conducted at a point of contact, thesystem comprising: a workstation, the workstation electronicallycapturing first transaction data reflecting transactions processed at apoint of contact; a memory coupled to the workstation, the memorystoring the first transaction data in an electronic transaction file;and a remote processing facility coupled to the memory, the remoteprocessing facility: receiving the paper documents, generating secondtransaction data reflecting information contained on the paperdocuments, reading the first transaction data from the electronictransaction file, linking the first and second transaction data withrespect to a common financial transaction, and performing financialprocessing using the first and second transaction data.
 85. The systemaccording to claim 84, further comprising a plurality of workstationslocated in at least one bank branch location.
 86. The system accordingto claim 85, wherein the plurality of workstations are located at aplurality of bank branch locations, the system further comprising: aplurality of memories, at least one memory coupled to the workstationslocated at a bank branch location, the remote processing facility beingcoupled to each of the memories.
 87. The system according to claim 86,wherein the remote processing facility is coupled to the memoriesthrough a telecommunications line.
 88. The system according to claim 86,wherein the remote processing facility is coupled to the memoriesthrough a common memory.
 89. The system as set forth in claim 84,wherein the remote processing facility includes a system for imaging thepaper documents.
 90. The system as set forth in claim 89, wherein theremote processing facility includes a Magnetic Ink Character Recognition(MICR) reader.
 91. The system as set forth in claim 84, wherein theworkstation includes a Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) reader.